


Our Demons Within

by krisaylas



Category: Video Blogging RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: Antisepticeye Sean McLoughlin, Darkiplier Mark Fischbach, M/M, Rusty Ethan Nestor, im honestly not sure where this is even gonna go but LETS DO IT, probably gonna be really angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-12 14:29:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11163804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krisaylas/pseuds/krisaylas
Summary: Tyler's two best friends are starting to be a bit different, though he shows no similar signs whatsoever. Thrown into the position of trying to be the peacekeeper, Tyler struggles to handle the current events.





	1. Chapter 1

“Ethan, hey buddy...you alright in there?” I gently rapped on the bathroom door, leaning against the doorframe. Whatever noises were coming out of there...they really weren’t good. Not even in the I’ve-got-a-stomach-ache-and-I-can’t-handle-this way, more in the I’m-actually-dying-please-help kind of way. He had ran in there about forty-five minutes ago, and still hasn’t come out.

“Tyler, g-go, I’ll be fine…” I definitely was not convinced by the weak voice coming from behind the door. 

“Are you sure-?”

“Go!” I raised my hands in defence, despite him not being able to see.

“Alright, alright, I’m going. Lemme know if you need anything. We’ve got plenty of tp in the closet,” I chuckled a bit, turning to head back into the living room. Before I could make it back, I heard a loud crash coming from Ethan’s vicinity. 

“Did you knock the shower curtain down, dude? The hell are you doing?” I called, warily looking back at the door. I was beginning to get worried - something was wrong. 

_ Thump. Thump. _ There was a banging on the wall, and then silence. 

“...Ethan?” Was he...laughing? “C’mon man, quit playing with me…” The door suddenly swung open, startling me.

“But it’s so  _ fun _ playing with you, Tyler.” There stood Ethan, grinning widely. 

“Y-y...you’re..no, no, wait...Ethan, this isn’t funny-” I stammered out. This wasn’t like him. Not at all.

“Sorry, Ethan’s not here right now. Can I take a message?” More laughter. “You’re so cute when you’re confused.” 

“If you’re not Ethan, then who…?” 

“Would it be cliche to say your worst nightmare?” He paused, thinking it over. “Though...then again, perhaps it is true,” The menacing smile on the intruder’s face faded to a smirk, shrugging as he shoved his hands into his pockets and strolled over to me. “Go ahead and call me Rusty.”

I took a deep breath, shaking my head. “No, Ethan, listen to me-” Before I could blink, I was up against the wall, the air knocked out of my chest.

“What part of this don’t you get? He’s not here.  _ I’m _ here now. Do you understand?” Rusty growled. 

“GET OUT!” I yelled, struggling against his grip, shoving him away.

“Try and kick me out all you want, I’ll still be here! I’ll keep coming back, and your friend will waste away to  _ nothing _ !” I hissed through my teeth as Rusty grappled with me, raking his nails down my forearm in an attempt to grab ahold of me. I grabbed the collar of his shirt, holding it tightly in my fist.

“Like hell I’m letting that happen, you son of a bitch! Ethan’s not going anywhere!” Suddenly, Rusty froze in place, a look of fear crossing over his face.

“..T-Tyler?” My heart skipped a beat, and I carefully let go of his shirt. His eyes searched mine, blown in terror

“Ethan, buddy, h-hey…”

“Tyler...wh-what’s going on?” His voice shook - I hadn’t ever seen Ethan like this, and by god was it heart wrenching. I put my hands on his shoulders, but he jerked away from me. “I thought...what are you  _ doing _ ?”

“I...it’s not what you-”

“It’s not what I think it is, huh? Why were you trying to hurt me? I thought we were friends! I mean, I know I’m a dick sometimes, but I never thought you’d sink so low!” 

“Eth, please, I wasn’t…” I trailed off, scrambling for words. I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back, his eyes had turned dark - pitch black. 

“He’s never gonna forgive you, Tyler. You lost his trust.” He smirked.

“Let him go!” I shouted, adrenaline running through my veins, my ears beginning to ring. His eyes turned back to the sad and confused hazel gaze, boring through my mind.

“Tyler...please..”

“I’m sorry…”

“Tyler...Tyler!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler wakes up, and his day begins - but not without some added stress.

“Tyler!” My eyes shot open, and I scrambled to sit myself up. Breathing heavily, I glanced around, making eye contact with a distressed blue haired figure, perched on the edge of my bed. “Ty, are you okay?” Oh, god, it was just a dream.

“Y-Yeah… Yeah, I’m okay,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

“Bad dream?” He asked, searching my face worriedly. 

“It’s nothing, Ethan. Don’t worry about it,” I stifled a yawn, kicking the covers to the foot of my bed and getting up. “Ready for today?” I asked, stretching a bit.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s gonna be great,” He smiled a little, though I could tell he still had questions. “I’ll leave you to get ready, Amy’s already making breakfast.” Ethan hesitated a moment before heading out of my room, closing the door behind him. I sighed quietly, looking out the window. I had a feeling today was going to be a long day.

 

“Alright, let’s get down to business,” Mark spoke, pulling out his notebook. “Everyone all set for breakfast?” A soft chorus of agreement flowed through the room. “Awesome. So - Kat, do we have everything we need?”

“We should, I think all that’s left is the food,” Kathryn nodded to herself, flipping through the checklists she had made. “We can get that the day of, though..”

“Perfect. Amy, we’ve got all the costumes and makeup we need, yeah?”

“Yup!”

“Great - Ethan and Tyler, you two’ve got the scripts?”

“Uh huh! There were a few grammatical edits we needed to make, but otherwise it’s looking pretty good,” Ethan produced the stack of paper he’d been hoarding for the past few weeks, looking quite proud of himself. “All that’s left is to finish scripting out… Uh…” He rummaged through the papers, mumbling to himself a bit.

“I think it’s the chocolate and vanilla endings, along with the meta one… Right?” I asked, peering at Ethan’s papers.

“Yeah! Yeah, those are the ones we need to finish up. Otherwise, we’re all good to go!” He gave a two thumbs up, ready for the day.

“Alright then, let’s get cracking. We need to finish those endings up, and soon, otherwise we’ll be behind schedule,” Mark paused, thinking to himself. “Tomorrow we need to start filming...Tyler, I’m gonna need you. You and I are gonna work on the scripting today.”

“Wait, I thought Ethan was your go to for the scripts-”

“I thought you were willing to help,” he stated, staring intently at me. I furrowed my brows; what was up with him?

“Dude, I know you’re anxious to get the ball rolling on this, but-”

“Stop talking, alright? I need you to help me with this, and that’s that.” I was taken aback slightly - Mark was never like this. I blinked a bit, looking to Ethan. He didn’t seem phased at all, shuffling through his papers like nothing strange had just happened.

“Uh… Alright,” I ran a hand through my hair, standing up. “I’ll be right back, I just… Need to take care of something real quick,” I made my way out of the studio, shaking my head. Something’s been up since we started this project - I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but Mark wasn’t being himself. Not one bit. Maybe he’s just tired - he’s been working really hard the past few days, and it’s only gonna get worse. Yeah… That’s gotta be it. He’s just a little snappy, that’s all. Overtired, and when this is all done, it’ll be back to-

“Tyler?” My thoughts were interrupted, and I looked up; it was Amy. “Is everything okay?” She looked rather concerned.

“Oh, yeah,” I started, scrambling for an excuse. “Just uh. Thought I left something out here, but I think it's in my room.” She looked at me quizzically for a moment, then shrugged and nodded.

“Well, alright. We're getting ready to start working, and you and Mark are gonna probably end up working on the dining room table.”

“Got it, thanks Amy. I’ll be up there in just a few minutes.”

 

“No… That’s not right,” Mark scribbled out the same line for what seemed to be the sixteenth time. I let out a soft sigh, rubbing my face.

“Look, Mark, instead of just focusing on this  _ one _ line, maybe we should just move on and come back?”

“NO! This needs to be perfect, Tyler.  _ Perfect. _ ” From under the table, Chica let out a little whine as Mark raised his voice. 

“Alright, listen,” I placed an arm on the table, slowly getting fed up. “You’re great at improv, why don’t we just get the general basis down, and you can do whatever comes to mind at the moment.” Mark was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.

“Fine. That works.”

“Alright. We can leave the chocolate and vanilla ending as is right now, since we’ve got those down. We just need to tweak the meta-” I was cut off as Chica started growling; Mark and I looked at each other in surprise. She began backing out from underneath the table on my side, letting out a loud bark. 

“Chica, what is it?” I stood, looking around. She seemed distressed, barking and growling at seemingly nothing, until… “Mark, is she barking at you?” I kneeled next to her, gently soothing her. 

“I don’t know why she would,” Mark stood, tilting his head. He tried to approach her, but she began growling again.

“Chica, shhh, it’s okaaay… Maybe I should take her for a walk?” I suggested, continuing to pet her. 

“I… Yeah, I guess. I’ll finish working on this, you can go ahead and take Chica.” He nodded, taking his seat again and rubbing the back of his neck. He definitely seemed to be shaken a bit at that, and almost seemed like himself again. I brushed it off and grabbed Chica’s leash, heading outside with her. We walked silently along the road, the only sound being the occasional car passing by. 

“Well, I dunno Chica. Maybe we’re thinking the same thing,” I looked down at her - she seemed content, tongue lolling out as we walked, no sign of stress from earlier. “I just don’t know.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next few days went by rather uneventfully; everyone was working hard in preparation for the next week of filming, Mark was still… off, and even Ethan seemed to be a  _ lot _ calmer than usual. Something really wasn’t right. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t shake that feeling. 

The day finally came, not with a “Good morning, let’s have a great day!” but more with a…

“TYLER GET UP, WE’RE LATE WE’RE LATE WE’RE LATE!!” I let out a yell as I tumbled out of bed, quickly throwing on some clothes and bursting out of my room.

“WHY DID NO ONE SET AN ALARM?!”

“THAT WAS MARK’S FAULT!” Ethan yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

“ _ MY _ FAULT? OH, COME ON, IT WAS HARDLY MY FAULT!”

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WANTED TO DO THIS PROJECT MAN, IT IS DEFINITELY YOUR FAULT,” I called in return, taking the stairs two at a time, nearly faceplanting at the bottom. 

“I can’t believe the whole household slept in,” Kathryn sighed, brewing coffee overtime, filling each person’s to-go cup with their respective poison. 

“I can. It’s really no surprise,” I laughed a bit, turning my attention to an extremely disheveled Mark bounding into the kitchen.

“Okay, okay, okay, we’re only about an hour off schedule, the car’s all packed, we can do makeup on the set, and we can get filming, it’ll be fine, we can do this,” He babbled, out of breath, as he hopped around the room trying to get his socks on. 

“Let’s get a move on then!” Amy encouraged, already at the door. Ethan was standing at the fridge, piling food into his arms.

“You got enough food there?” I laughed a bit, picking up two of the coffees Kat had made to bring to the car.

“I dunno, I’m just really hungry for some reason. Felt like I haven’t eaten in days,” he shrugged, closing the door with his hip. 

“You better share.”

“Not if I eat it all first!” 

“Hey! C’mon, get back here!” I called after Ethan, laughing, as he ran towards the door, barely managing to open it with his full arms.

 

After finally piling into the car and nearly speeding to our first location, we made it only an hour and a half late to the “restaurant”. Some quick work had the scene set up - table neatly set, lights in place, and camera at the ready. 

“Are we all set?” Mark asked, taking his seat in the chair across from where the camera was going to sit. 

“I think so!” Amy took one last look around and picked up the clapboard, scribbling a few numberson it. “Alright then, everyone’s in their places?” I nodded, looking over at Ethan, who looked pretty damn excited to get this going. “Okay!” Amy stood to the side, placing the board in front of the camera. “A Date with Markiplier, scene one, take one, action!” The telltale clap sounded through the studio, and the camera was rolling.

 

“...aaaand that's a wrap!” Mark called, standing up straight after rewatching the scene. I stepped down from the bumper of the car, panting a bit.

“It takes a lot more effort to shake a car than you'd first think,” I laughed a bit. 

“It looked like you were trying to tip a cow rather than shake a car,” Kathryn responded, stifling a giggle.

“Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do for a scene.”

“True that!”

“Alright, are we ready to get a move on the the warehouse?” Amy asked, already holding some of the lighting equipment in her arms.

“Sounds good to me!” Mark responded, taking a satisfied look around. I strolled over to Ethan, nudging him slightly.

“Hey, you ready to be a lil’ monkey and climb to all the places we can't reach?” I teased gently. When he didn't respond, I looked over at him - and I felt my stomach drop. He was looking directly at me, eyes pitch black. Oh no, god no-

“E-Eth? Bud, you alright?” I asked, trying to keep myself as calm as possible. He blinked, and the dark glaze disappeared, making me question whether or not I even saw it in the first place.

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, I was just spacing out,” he smiled, “You of all people know that that's my specialty.” I nodded, internally breathing a sigh of relief. Okay. It's probably just my head being dumb, I'm just overthinking the nightmares.

“C’mon you two! Are you just gonna stand there gawking at each other like a buncha lovebirds, or are you gonna help us?” Amy joked, causing me to duck away quickly and help carry things to the car. I could feel Ethan’s stare on my back for a few questioning moments before he, too, set to work.

 

The rest of the day went by rather smoothly; we got through all the scenes we needed at the warehouse, and we were just beginning to wrap up for tonight. 

“I think that went pretty well!” Kathryn spoke, deconstructing a lighting setup.

“I couldn't agree more, honestly,” Mark replied, nodding his head towards Ethan. “If you hadn't figured out how to fix the boom mic, we would've been dead.”

“Oh stop, it just took some fiddling around,” Ethan laughed a bit, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

“You're a good handyman, I'll give you that,” I spoke, tossing a few extraneous props into a bin. 

“I've been told I'm good with my hands~” Ethan teased, wiggling his eyebrows in my direction, eliciting laughs from the others, and causing me to quickly fall silent in quiet embarrassment. We finished packing up with some mindless banter, and I volunteered to go back and do a final sweep and make sure nothing was left behind. The warehouse was eerily quiet in comparison to the bustle of the last few hours. Echoes of my footsteps rang dully in my ears as I scanned the area, making sure there were no forgotten props or important equipment. 

“ _ You’re far too late. _ ” 

I paused in my tracks, looking around. “...Mark?” I called out, furrowing my brows. It wasn’t unlike him to play little pranks, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was him.

“ _ He promised he’d let me in. _ ” 

The voice echoed in my head, a quiet yet high-pitched ringing following after the ominous sentence was finished. I saw nothing around me, just the dark, empty warehouse. “Who’s there?” Slight panic was raising in my chest, though I felt frozen to the spot I had stopped in. 

“ _ You won’t be able to stop us, Tyler. _ ”

“Mark, this isn’t funny!” I yelled, slowly shuffling to the wall, as if it’d provide me with some sort of protection.

“What isn’t?” I heard Mark from the other end of the warehouse; he had poked his head in through the door. “Is everything alright in here?” The ringing slowly faded away, and I took a minute to recenter myself.

“U-Uh, yeah! Yeah, everything’s fine, we didn’t leave anything, we’re all good…” I managed to pull myself together and make my way out, back to the car.

“Are you alright? Man, you look like you just saw a ghost.” He looked genuinely concerned, which told me that I definitely looked worse for wear. I brushed it off, forcing a smile on my face.

“I’m good Mark, don’t worry about me.” I made my way to the van and situated myself in the far back, rubbing my face. What the  _ hell  _ was going on? I...must just be going crazy. That’s the only answer, right? I was snapped out of my thoughts when Ethan caught my attention. 

“Ty, have you seen this yet?” He passed me his phone, where a video was pulled up. Pressing play, I thought to myself - maybe I can figure this out. They don’t have to know all this bullshit I’ve been coming up with. I was once again drawn out of thought when music blasted from Ethan’s phone, causing him to burst into laughter. “That’s the funniest fucking thing I’ve seen all month, and that’s saying  _ a lot _ !” I cracked a smile, glancing up at him, and had to do a doubletake. For a split second, I could’ve sworn I saw Ethan... _ glitch _ through his laughter?

This...may prove to be slightly more difficult than first thought.


End file.
